Rock – Page 8 – 7th Level Music

Rewind Review: Electric Wizard – Dopethrone (2006)

I think it’s a given that if you find an Electric Wizard album for five bucks, you put down five bucks. That’s what I did when I found their classic third album, Dopethrone, in a Columbus, Ohio record store a couple weeks ago.

The album’s back story is full of drugs, booze, H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard stories, and arguments over which direction the band would take on their newest record. Believe it or not, there were discussions among some band members about trying to sound more like Nirvana or Linkin Park (complete with record scratching – How much drugs were they doing?).

Thankfully, their stuck to their doom roots and created what is now considered a doom / stoner metal classic. The album opens with a sample of someone talking about being able to escape satanic cults only by death or residency in a mental institution before they unload “Vinum Sabbathi” – a sludgy song about drug addiction (“Now I’m a slave to the black drug, forced to serve this black god.”) that almost defies description. Tim Baghsaw‘s bass on it is so heavy it almost crushes you.

The switch to “Funeralopolis” makes you think they’re going to mellow out for a little while, but that thought is short-lived. Jus Oborn‘s guitars on it sound like a hundred buzz saws being operated by drunken orcs while he sings cheerful lyrics like “Millions are screaming, the dead are still living. This earth has died yet no one has seen.” and “Nuclear warheads ready to strike. This world is so fucked let’s end it tonight.” It’s not date night music…unless you’re dating an incubus or succubus, then by all means blast it.

“Weird Tales” is a three-part tale of creepy things and a tribute to Lovecraft and even Weird Tales magazine. Part one is “Electric Frost,” which name checks Yuggoth and Kadath from Lovecraft stories and pays tribute to them through powerful riffs that come at you like a tidal wave. Drummer Mark Greening has said in the past that he always felt the drums on Dopethrone and other Electric Wizard albums could’ve been bigger. That’s difficult to imagine, because his drums almost bludgeon you unconscious over the entire record. “Electric Frost” is a great example. The next two parts, “Golgotha” and “Altar of Melektaus,” are trippy instrumentals with smoky synths that slither like tentacles from shadowy places.

“Barbarian” is, appropriately, a song about Conan and pays great homage to him and his creator (Robert E. Howard) with its battle axe riffs and skull-smashing drums. “I, the Witchfinder” is as gritty and gruesome as its namesake, who delights in torturing maidens suspects of witchcraft. “We Hate You” is a tongue-in-cheek parody of Black Sabbath songs about loving one’s fellow man. The title track is a growling, snarling, savage thing all about…you guessed it, a throne made of weed upon which sit “three wizards crowned with weed.”

This album is about as heavy as a war hammer forged from lead. It’s a wild ride, at times spooky and other times groovy, but always, always heavy.

Keep your mind open.

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The Hope Conspiracy release punk rager – “The West Is Dead.”

he Hope Conspiracy will release their long-awaited new full-length album, Tools of Oppression / Rule by Deception on May 31st. Today, the group has shared the record’s dystopian, hook-laden second single, “The West Is Dead.” Vocalist Kevin Baker states, “Politicians in the west, whether they are on the left or right, all eat from the same pig trough. Corporations own every single one of them. The working people were sold down the river decades ago. The professional liars are not concerned with fair wages, human rights, affordable healthcare or the poison in our air, water and food. Both sides play on everyone’s sensitivities to keep us hating one another while they take lucrative donations and marching orders from rent seeking billionaires. The tent cities and rampant homelessness would go away tomorrow if they really wanted it to be so. The system is designed to crush the common people. If you don’t feel it now you will. If you don’t see it now you will. It’s the approaching storm on the horizon and there is no escaping it. The west is dead and our end is near.”

Watch / share “The West Is Dead” on YouTube.

True sonic violence aimed at political division, economic manipulation, war profiteering, media propaganda and other vile forms of global oppression, Tools of Oppression / Rule by Deception is an ominous soundtrack to the steady decline of our modern age. There is no question, The Hope Conspiracy is back to make a cold hard statement about existence in the end times.

Tools of Oppression / Rule by Deception was engineered by Kurt Ballou and Zach Weeks at God City Studios, and artwork for the release was created by acclaimed artist Alexander Heir (Death/Traitors). The album is available for pre-order here and The Hope Conspiracy will be playing select shows this summer and fall.

The Hope Conspiracy, on tour:
June 7 Cambridge, MA @ Sonia
June 8 Brooklyn, NY @ The Meadows
June 9 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
July 20 Chicago, IL @ Cobra Lounge – The Rumble
September 6 Los Angeles, CA @ 1720
September 7 Berkeley, CA @ 924 Gilman
September 8 Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction
September 9 Giant Rock, CA @ Ask A Punk
September 12 San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
September 13 Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project
September 14 Portland, OR @ Dante’s
September 15 Tacoma, WA @ Real Art

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Stephanie at Another Side.]

Rewind Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Live at Levitation ’14 (2021)

Praise be to the Reverberation Appreciation Society for releasing this early live gem from Australian psych-rock giants King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Live at Levitation ’14 is, I think, a recording of their first live performance in the United States. It was at that year’s Austin Psych Fest in Austin, Texas…and my late wife and I were there.

We didn’t know much about KGATLW then. Heck, no one in the U.S. did. They played an afternoon slot on the main stage, and there were maybe 125 people there for the set. I’d only heard a couple tracks that I’d found on obscure YouTube channels. Those tracks were intriguing enough for me to add them to my wish list of bands to see that year. I thought it would be an interesting set at least.

It certainly was. My thought about halfway through the set was, “Wow…These guys came to play.” Starting with “I’m in Your Mind,” the band launches off the stage right away with fun energy that would come to define their sets. They flow right into, of course, “I’m Not in Your Mind,” showing early signs of the linked “Gizzverse” stuff that would span across multiple albums.

They’re going nuts by the time they get to “Cellophane,” and stunning the crowd by this point. They then loop back to “I’m in Your Mind Fuzz,” and had attracted the other half of their set’s crowd by now because the amount of sound and energy they were putting out was immense. They didn’t stop for a breath until this track ends. “The Wholly Ghost” has a fun metal stomp to it and threatens to fry your brain altogether.

“We’re going to Dallas tomorrow. What’s that like?” Stu Mackenzie asks before the lovely, trippy “Sleepwalker.” “Bloody hot,” someone replies. The whole set is as hot as Texas heat. “Am I in Heaven” has the band starting mellow and then kicking in doors and knocking down tables on a stage in a western town. Call the festival attendees, there were madmen around that afternoon – judging from the chaotic energy KGATLW were broadcasting.

“We’re gonna play one more,” Mackenzie says. That one is the epic “Head On / Pill,” which is over sixteen minutes of psychedelia that will make your mind feel like the album’s cover image. It was a stunning end to a stunning set that left people elated and dumbfounded. They weren’t sure what they’d just seen and heard, but knew they’d been part of something special.

It was a great set, and still sounds great ten years later. It’s essential if you’re a King Gizz fan.

Keep your mind open.

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Blushing drop another killer single – “Slyce” – from their upcoming album.

Blushing — the Austin, TX-based band consisting of the double husband and wife pairs of Christina and Noe Carmona and Michelle and Jacob Soto — present a new single/video, “Slyce,” from their forthcoming album, Sugarcoat, out May 3rd via Kanine. Following singles “Tamagotchi” and “Seafoam,” “Slyce” shows Blushing at their most sonically experimental. The verses splash around elements of psych and shoegaze that rise towards an anthemic chorus. Lyrically, the song uses imagery of cuts and breaks to convey the damage that can be caused by engaging in toxic relationships, even when you just can’t help yourself.

The last song to be recorded during the Sugarcoat sessions, the band’s only option for recording was to utilize the Austin Community College recording studio where their producer and engineer Elliott Frazier happened to be a teacher. The recording sessions would occur during Frazier’s classroom time, so that meant the band performed and recorded in front of a classroom of kids and adults, all while Frazier explained to the class what he was doing at the console, incorporating it into his lessons. The track also features Christina’s dad Carlos Fernandez, a classical pianist who lends his piano playing talents over the song’s bridge.

Watch the Video for “Slyce”

Sugarcoat is the follow-up to two EPs, 2017’s Tether and 2018’s Weak, their self-titled debut, and 2022’s Possessions. They didn’t want to create an album where each song was made to fit into the same mold. Instead, they decided to run with each idea no matter which direction it was facing, resulting in an album that is somewhat of a sampler of the group’s collective influences. While there are certainly tracks immediately recognizable as “Blushing” songs, this album is where the band get to explore their love for expanding genres, from post-punk, psych-gaze, grunge-pop, indie-pop, slowcore, and beyond. Lyrically the album asks many questions, reaching out for someone to provide answers or for the answers to come from within. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world as well as personally. Getting older, questioning past decisions, and the constant unknown of the future.

On Sugarcoat, Blushing’s dynamism is on full display, flitting effortlessly from spacey psychedelia to twee pop jangle with finesse and panache. Having enlisted Elliot Frazier (Ringo Deathstarr) and Mark Gardener (Ride) for engineering, mixing, and mastering duties, Sugarcoat is a dense, reverb-laden exploration of alt-rock’s 40 year history that conjures up concord from chaos.

This summer, they’ll support Slater and Airiel across North America, along with headline dates in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and more. Tickets are on sale now and a full list can be found below.

Watch Blushing’s Video for “Tamagotchi”

Watch Blushing’s Video for “Seafoam”

Pre-order Sugarcoat

Blushing Tour Dates
Thu. May 2 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas (album release show)
Wed. May 15 – San Antonio, TX @ Vibes Underground *
Thu. May 16 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada *
Sat. May 18 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall *
Sun. May 19 – McAllen, TX @ The Gremlin *
Fri. June 14 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Resonant Head
Sat. June 15 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge
Sun. June 16 – Nashville, TN @ 5 spot
Tue. June 18 – Washington, DC @ Pie Shop %
Wed. June 19 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s %
Thu. June 20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right %
Fri. June 21 – Boston, MA @ Deep Cuts %
Sat. June 22 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground %
Sun. June 23 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz %
Mon. June 24 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison %
Wed. June 26 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls Funhouse %
Thu. June 27 – Detroit, MI @ Small’s %
Fri. June 28 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland
Sat. June 29 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas
Mon. July 1 – Denver, CO @ Skylark Lounge
Wed. July 3 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Thu. July 4 – Portland, OR @ The Six
Fri. July 5 – San Francisco, CA @ Kilowatt
Sat. July 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge
Sun. July 7 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
Mon. July 8 – El Paso, TX @ Rosewood
Sun. Sept. 1 – Cambridge, UK @ Portland Arms ^
Mon. Sept. 2 – Leeds, UK @ Old Woollen ^
Tue. Sept. 3 – Glasgow, UK @ Room 2 ^
Wed. Sept. 4 – Stockton-on-Trees, UK @ Georgian Theatre ^
Thu. Sept. 5 – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute ^
Fri. Sept. 6 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Islington ^
Sat. Sept. 7 – Brighton, UK @ Dust ^

* = w/ Slater
%= w/ Airiel
^= w/ Ringo Deathstarr

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: The Psychedelic Furs (self-titled) (1980)

I’m pretty sure “Dumb Waiters” (from their second excellent album Talk Talk Talk) was the first song I heard by The Psychedelic Furs. I remember seeing the video on MTV back in the early 1980s and my friend, Brian, and I laughing because we’d never heard of (to our small-town Midwestern ears) such an odd name for a band and such a strange sound. We also had no idea it wasn’t even their first single or album.

To baffle me more, I later learned that their 1980 self-titled debut album had two different versions – one released in the U.S. and the other in the band’s home U.K. Both albums included songs not on the other version, and both had a different order of tracks. Both are sharp post-punk records and worth finding in any version.

The one pictured above is the U.S. version, which opens with “India” – a whopper of a track that clocks in over six minutes, building on John Ashton‘s shoegaze guitar strumming and then bursting forth with Tim Butler‘s heavy bass hooks and Roger Morris‘ guitar. Richard Butler‘s vocals always have a sarcastic edge, but never so much that you don’t feel like you couldn’t have a pint with him at the pub. He uses similar themes across the album, such as stupidity, feeling useless, and dancing to escape all of it.

“Sister Europe” is a gorgeous track bordering on goth territory, but Duncan Kilburn‘s saxophone keeps it from becoming too morose – even though it’s a song about Richard Butler’s girlfriend leaving him to move to Italy. “Susan’s Strange” is one of the tracks not available on the original UK version of the album. It sounds a bit like the band stood behind drummer Vince Ely when they recorded it, as everything but the drums seems to be in another room while Ely is almost playing lead. It’s a neat effect.

“Fall” is a funky jam as Richard Butler sings about the banality of married life (“Marry me and be my wife. You can have me all your life. Parties for our stupid friends. Are the children really home?”). “We Love You” is an early slap at people with “Live Laugh Love” posters in their house, as Richard Butler calls out people who throw around the word “love” without giving it much thought. The whole track is a bright, fun jam that’s become a fan-favorite and a salute to the band’s fans.

“Soap Commercial” (which is the other track not available on the UK version…and is probably a post-punk band’s name by now) is about having products stuffed down our throats day and night by television…and they wrote it over forty years ago. Kilburn’s saxophone riffs on “Imitation of Christ” are great touches and always in the right amount, while Richard Butler takes down people using religion to justify foolishness.

“Pulse” is a great track with Tim Butler’s bass taking the lead and the whole band charging through it as Tim’s brother again takes on religious hypocrites. Ely’s beats on “Wedding Song” are so damn good that they’re almost distracting. You could drop them into a house music set without effort. Richard Butler almost raps on the track at one point. The closing track, “Flowers,” is a wild one about, I think, death and not mourning too much over those who didn’t bring much light to the world.

It’s a great debut, and many great singles would follow for the Furs on subsequent albums. Before they became known for “Pretty in Pink,” they were Angry in the Dark. They’ve lost none of their sharp wit either, and are still making good music today.

Keep your mind open.

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REZN open up a dark, doomy “Chasm” with their newest single.

REZN – the Chicago-based band of Rob McWilliams (vocals, guitar), Phil Cangelosi (bass), Patrick Dunn (drums), and Spencer Ouellette (synth/saxophone) – announce their new album, Burden, out June 14^thvia their new label Sargent House. In conjunction, they present its massive lead single/video, “Chasm.” Since their inception, REZN have mined the stark monochromatic depths of underground metal and fused them with the kaleidoscopic delights of psychedelia, prog rock, and shoegaze. With their latest album Burden, they plumb the deepest, bleakest trenches of their sound while retaining a lifeline into the cosmos. Staking a claim at the crossroads of the hazy dimensions of modern psych acts like Black Angels, the cavernous gloom and reverb-drenched guitar of bands like Spectral Voice, and the lurching low-end meditations of artists like OM, REZN have created Burden—an album of immense amp-worshipping weight and intoxicating instrumentation.

Burden was recorded simultaneously with their previous album Solace back in July 2021 at Earth Analog Studios in Tolono, IL by Matt Russell. Rather than release a double album, REZN divided the material into two separate records, each with its own distinct emotional timbre. Whereas Solace was meant to uplift and create a sense of narcotic dreaminess, Burden skews towards the themes of delirium, claustrophobia, and misery. Musically, Burden favors riffs over atmosphere, percussion over ether, dissonance over beauty, but there is still an undeniable cohesion between it and its predecessor. The marriage of brute force and sublime textures has always been a key tactic in REZN’s approach—a duality that may explain their touring history with fellow synesthesia-inducing metallurgists Elder and Russian Circles—but the spectrum of the band’s mercurial temperaments has never felt as clearly defined and fully explored as it does on Burden.

Burden’s artwork is a literal continuation of Solace’s landscape painting, showing the fiery depths at the foot of the mountain range. Even Burden’s most reserved moments feel like the calm before the storm, a gathering of momentum before the punishing closer and lead single “Chasm,” a megalithic weedian crusher further bolstered by a scorching guitar solo courtesy of Russian Circle’s Mike Sullivan. “We wrote ‘Chasm’ to depict the final phase of an existential descent, when you’re on the last few steps of the spiral staircase and realize there’s no going back,” says Rob McWilliams. “We wanted it to sound like walls closing in on all sides and you’re looking at the exit getting further and further away. Mike’s melodic finger-tapping style blurs the section into a kind of dizzying, infernal panic attack. In the final moment of the song you’re faced with the repetitive churning of a molten, fuzzed-out wall of sound that builds until the audio itself starts to singe and catch fire, then abruptly self destructs.”

Watch REZN’s Video for “Chasm”

As knowledgeable gear heads, experienced sound engineers, and seasoned DIY veterans, REZN were able to create an early body of work devoid of any sonic compromises in their speaker-rattling dirges and heady lysergic forays. Their four self-released albums—Let It Burn (2017), Calm Black Water (2018), Chaotic Divine (2020), and Solace (2023)—have all gone through multiple vinyl pressings without any distribution or retail presence, and the international underground heavy psych world has routinely selected the band for distinguished festival slots across North America and Europe. From their inception, REZN have been a fiercely independent band with a fully realized aesthetic and a fervent cult following. Now ready to take things even further, REZN have teamed up with Sargent House to release Burden unto the world.

This summer, REZN will tour across North America with Pallbearer. Following, they’ll tour in Europe with new label mates Russian Circles as well as performing at multiple festivals. A full list of dates can be found below and tickets are on sale now.

Pre-order Burden

Burden Tracklist
1. Indigo
2. Instinct
3. Descent of Sinuous Corridors
4. Bleak Patterns
5. Collapse
6. Soft Prey
7. Chasm

REZN Tour Dates
Sat. May 11 – Oslo, NO @ Desertfest Oslo
Tue. June 11 – Durham, NC @ The Fruit %
Wed. June 12 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy %
Thu. June 13 – Virginia Beach, VA @ The Bunker Brewpub %
Fri. June 14 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Baltimore %
Sat. June 15 – Lancaster, PA @ Tellus360 %
Sun. June 16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts %
Tue. June 18 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom %
Thu. June 20 -Brooklyn , NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg %
Fri. June 21 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair %
Sat. June 22 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmount %
Sun. June 23 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground %
Tue. June 25 – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium %
Wed. June 26 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall %
Thu. June 27 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club %
Fri. June 28 – Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck %
Sat. June 29 – Little Rock, AR @ The Hall %
Fri. July 26 – Indianapolis, IN @ Post. Festival
Wed. Oct. 9 – Berlin, DE @ Astra $
Thu. Oct. 10 – Koln, DE @ Kantine $
Fri. Oct. 11 – Munich, DE @ Keep It Low Festival $
Sat. Oct. 12 – Prague, CZ @ Archa $
Mon. Oct. 14 – Vienna, AT @ Arena $
Tue. Oct. 15 – Bologna, IT @ Estragon $
Thu. Oct. 17 – Metz, FR @ La Bam $
Fri. Oct. 18 – Antwerp, BE @ Desertfest $
Sun. Oct. 20 – Gothenburg, SE @ Monument $
Mon. Oct. 21 – Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret $
Tue. Oct. 22 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan $
Thu. Oct. 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega $
Fri. Oct. 25 – Aalborg, DK @ Lasher Fest $
Sat. Oct. 26 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefaehrlich $
Tue. Oct. 29 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute2 $
Wed. Oct. 30 – Glasgow, UK @ Slay $
Thu. Oct. 31 – Belfast, N-IRE @ Limelight 2 $
Fri. Nov. 1 – Dublin, IRE @ Button Factory $
Sat. Nov. 2 – Manchester, UK @ Damnation Fest $
Sun. Nov. 3 – London, UK @ EartH $
Tue. Nov. 5 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon $
Wed.Nov. 6 – Rennes, FR @ L’Antipode $
Thu. Nov. 7 – Bordeaux, FR @ Krakatoa $
Sun. Nov. 10 – Madrid, ES @ Nazca $
Mon. Nov. 11 – Barcelona, ES @ Salamandra $

%= w/ Pallbearer
$= w/ Russian Circles

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Greg Saunier encourages us to “Grow Like a Plant” on his upcoming debut solo album – “We Sang, Therefore We Were.”

Today drummer, composer and founding member of Deerhoof Greg Saunier has announced his debut solo LP We Sang, Therefore We Were, out April 26th, 2024 via Joyful Noise Recordings. Out today is the lead single and video “Grow Like a Plant.”

That founding took place 30 years ago today. “It was 1994 and I was playing in a grunge band in San Francisco,” says Greg. “The two guitarists were literally living with members of the Melvins. Rob Fisk, the bass player, and I had been listening to an AMM CD at home and decided we wanted to give free improv a try. So we came to practice an hour early. That was Deerhoof’s first rehearsal. An hour later our two bandmates walked through the door with the bad news: Kurt Cobain had just been found dead.”

Despite the ominous start their band, Deerhoof has gradually gone on to achieve legendary status in the ears of many, releasing 19 strange and wonderful albums in the process. And during those 30 years, Greg has produced, mixed, composed, or played on hundreds of others (Discogs has him credited on over 300 albums). So it is remarkable that this is, in fact, his very first solo record. He sings and plays all the instruments, save for a few birds who join in now and again.

“When Satomi, Ed, John and I were chatting between shows in Austin in early December, they encouraged me to make a record on my own, as a way to cope with the restlessness I’ve been feeling,” says Greg. “It came together quick. Intrigued by the announcement that the new Rolling Stones record was going to sound ‘angry,’ I thought, ‘Good, I’m angry too.’ But when Hackney Diamonds turned out more like cotton candy than punk rock, I ironically went back to Nirvana: not just the clever melodies over massive distortion, but also that dark Cobain sarcasm which still resonates in this age of phony blue-check-washing of fascism.”

The lyrics, “on the familiar topic of interspecies absurdist operatic anti-Cartesian revolution,” are drawn from the text that spreads itself across front and back of the album cover. In this long poem Greg recasts White House spokespersons as “The Queen of the Night” fromThe Magic Flute, recasts The Queen of the Night as a mockingbird singing Mozart’s famous aria in an all-night battle for survival, and ultimately recasts the mockingbird as a campy drag artist taking pleasure in her own relentless, aggressive musicianship.

Just how relentless is Greg’s musicianship is something that even fans of his celebrated drumming may not have realized. It turns out Greg is an excellent guitarist and bassist, if a bit more rudimentary and slicing compared to his Deerhoof bandmates. He does play more angry guitar solos. We Sang, Therefore We Were’s self-production is shambling and anti-slick, the arrangements in a constant state of impatient agitation. Big-hit earwigs abound but are delivered in a delicate, whispery falsetto, tending towards three-part harmony, sometimes sounding almost like Deerhoof fronted by The Andrews Sisters. The hints of Mozartian euphony that insinuate themselves here and there finally take over in an unexpected climax at the end, the drums breaking off into a laugh-or-cry orchestral outpouring that may be the rawest part of the album.

About “Grow Like a Plant”
The album’s first single is indebted to Captain Beefheart’s “Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish,” and written in the octatonic scale made famous by Igor Stravinsky in Le Sacre de Printemps. Like all of We Sang, Therefore We Were, it is grief and anger delivered in code.

“Grow Like a Plant” “addresses that annoying quirk of the homosapien mind where it thinks it’s made of higher quality molecules than the rest of the universe,” according to Greg. “For millennia civilizations managed to temper this suicidal arrogance with ritual. Until 500 years ago, when a handful of self-appointed experts invented The Enlightenment, proposing that men can solve any problem given enough brooding and/or physical violence; that the cosmos is actually nothing but an inert blob of matter for us to buy and sell. What if this is all wrong? What if it’s humans who are really the mindless instinct-machines, competing for territory, food, and mates, and it’s the plant and animal kingdoms that secretly know how to think and have fun?”

Greg’s partner, poet Sophie Daws, is the creative director and performer of the “oner” video that accompanies “Grow Like a Plant.” “Just as the song doesn’t stay fixed (in one rhythm, one emotional register), I wanted the dance and my relationship to the camera/audience to shift constantly,” Sophie explains. “In our improvised noise project, New Mom, Greg and I often talk about shifting before any musical part has time to settle — before it registers as a ‘musical part.’ We aren’t trying to find a ‘groove’ in the sense of trying to hit one emotion or tone. Doing so would feel false. As soon as I felt myself trying to seduce the camera, a future audience, a hierarchy, I shifted focus. Sometimes the focus was inward (eyes closed). Sometimes it was outward (eye contact). Maybe sometimes it was on the joy and fun of Greg’s danceable song.”

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jake at Joyful Noise Recordings.]

Camera Obscura release “Liberty Print,” the opening track to their first album in ten years.

Today, the legendary Scottish indie-pop band Camera Obscura releases the new single “Liberty Print” from their first new album in over ten years, Look to the East, Look to the West, out May 3rd on Merge Records. The group, led by guitarist and vocalist Tracyanne Campbell, have reunited with Jari Haapalainen, producer of the band’s 2006 album Let’s Get Out of This Country and 2009’s My Maudlin Career, and crafted an album that simultaneously recalls why longtime fans have ferociously loved them for decades while also being their most sophisticated effort to date.

The opening track to the album, “Liberty Print” shows off Camera Obscura’s uncanny dexterity in juxtaposing genres, moods, and emotions. Written about Campbell’s brother who died tragically at the age of 34, the track is an elegy that breaks itself open over a crushing synth line. A daringly constructed song, “Liberty Print” showcases Campbell’s command of lyrical narrative that allows space for grief within the structure of pop music. “I like ‘Liberty Print’ because I think it’s the song that sounds most unlike anything we’ve done before,” Campbell explains. “It introduces a new direction. It sounds fresh and exciting, and it introduces Donna [Maciocia] on keys in a big way. It was important to us that if we were to have a new player, that she be allowed to make her own creative stamp on the songs.”

Listen to Camera Obscura’s “Liberty Print”

Look to the East, Look to the West was the most hard-fought album of Camera Obscura’s career. Following the 2015 passing of founding keyboardist and friend Carey Lander, the band went into an extended hiatus. They remained in contact, but their status was uncertain until they announced their return, having been invited to perform as part of Belle & Sebastian’s 2019 Boaty Weekender cruise festival, along with a pair of sold-out warm-up shows in Glasgow. Donna Maciocia (keys and vocals) joined founding members Kenny McKeeve (guitar and vocals), Gavin Dunbar (bass), and Lee Thomson (drums and percussion) for those shows and has since become a regular songwriting partner of Campbell’s.

Recorded in the same room where Queen wrote “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Look to the East, Look to the West feels big, a widescreen reframing of Camera Obscura’s sound that, paradoxically, saw the band go back to basics—there are no string or brass arrangements, with more emphasis placed on piano, synthesizers, Hammond organ, and drum machines, and, perhaps most strikingly, the group have dropped the veil of reverb that characterized their previous albums. Look to the East, Look to the West is the sound of a band that has grown more confident in its sound and purpose than ever. It is Camera Obscura at their best and most evocative, an album that completely rearranges the listener’s emotional core, leaving them sad and exhilarated at the same time.

Pre-order Look to the East, Look to the West

Watch Camera Obscura’s “Big Love” Video

Listen to Camera Obscura’s “We’re Going to Make It in a Man’s World”

Camera Obscura Tour Dates:

Thu. May 2 – Hebden Bridge, UK @ The Trades Club

Sat. May 4 – Leeds, UK @ Stylus

Mon. May 6 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2

Tue. May 7 – London, UK @ Koko

Thu. May 9 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2

Fri. May 10 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy 2

Sat. May 11 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom

Wed. May 29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer

Thu. May 30 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club

Fri. May 31 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmont

Sat. Jun. 1 – Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall

Mon. Jun. 3 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall

Tue. Jun. 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line

Fri. Jun. 7 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile

Sat. Jun. 8 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall

Mon. Jun. 10 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore

Tue. Jun. 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern

Wed. Jun. 12 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom

Fri. Jun. 14 – Dallas, TX @ Studio at the Factory

Sat. Jun. 15 – Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn

Mon. Jun. 17 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety

Tue. Jun. 18 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle

Wed. Jun. 19 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club

Thu. Jun. 20 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall

Sat. Jun. 22 – Mon. Jun. 24 – Mexico City, MX @ Foro Indie Rocks!

Fri. Aug. 2 – Sat. Aug. 3 – Glasgow, UK @ The Glasgow Weekender

Thu. Aug. 29 – Sun. Sept. 1 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival

Fri. Aug. 30 – Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: Failure – Wild Type Droid (2021)

Failure have long been fascinated with science fiction and how we’ll be living in the future (especially the one that’s already here). Their last full-length album, Wild Type Droid, refers to how we humans will be looked upon as wild types of androids and cyborgs in years to come. Robotics, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, space exploration, and, yes, music eventually will be so far advanced that what we have now will seem like it was created by people living on primitive plains.

“If everything’s true, then nothing is real. If nothing is true, then everything’s real,’ Ken Andrews sings on the album’s opener – “Water with Hands.” Right away, they start with a song that creates a sound only Failure seem capable of making: a combination of shoegaze, space rock, prog, and something indefinable that alters your perception. It’s not really psychedelia. It’s almost something alien.

Then along comes “Headstand” to lift you from the ground (“The simulation’s about to meet its maker.”). I can’t determine which causes more transcendence, Andrews’ bass, Greg Edwards‘ zero-gravity guitar work, or Kellii Scott‘s afterburner drumming. “A Lifetime of Joy” is almost a classic Failure “Segue” that bursts into another display of Scott’s excellent drumming on “Submarines” – a song about Andrews processing the COVID-19 pandemic (“I was so innocent before the plague…Can’t live in submarines forever.”) that crushes live.

“Bring Back the Sound” starts slow and a bit quiet, but it slowly builds the tension and fuzz around Andrews’ excellent vocal track on it. “Mercury Mouth” has Andrews angry at someone (possibly Donald Trump?) for distorting the truth and refusing to accept further deception (“You are a liar. Shut your mouth. There’s nothing silver about your tongue.”). The band crushes it, with Scott dropping some of his biggest fills on the album in it.

“Still undecided on the flight back from Seoul,” Andrew sings in the beginning of “Undecided,” instantly dropping us into a mystery. Why is he uncertain? And about what? It seems to be about a relationship, but not necessarily a romantic or sexual one – more one with himself and his relationship with the world, the rat race, and reconnecting with nature.

“Long Division” is the longest track on the album (five minutes-eleven seconds) and gets trippy the entire time. “We are hallucinations,” they sing on “Bad Translation.” This became the title of their live album and concert film, and it’s a concept Failure love to explore – Who are we, really? Where does technology end and humanity begin (or vice-versa)? “You cannot trust your senses,” they sing, “but you can let them go.” We don’t have to be inexorably linked to technology that only separates us. We can embrace what’s here and now.

The album closes with Edwards singing lead on the mostly acoustic “Half Moon.” It sounds melancholy at times and uplifting at others, distant at times and warm and fuzzy in certain moments.

The whole album is like that – bringing the coldness of space and loneliness and mixing it with the warmth of the sun and the strength found in presence and mindfulness. It’s cosmic and grounded, roaring and whispering, bright and dark.

Keep your mind open.

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Blushing present another luscious single, “Seafoam,” ahead of new album due May 03rd.

Blushing — the Austin, TX-based dream pop band consisting of the double husband and wife pairs of Christina and Noe Carmona and Michelle and Jacob Soto — present a new single/video, “Seafoam,” from their forthcoming album, Sugarcoat, out May 3rd via Kanine. Following lead single “Tamagotchi,” “Seafoam” is an intoxicating blend of post-punk, dark dream pop and nineties riot grrrl. It features former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who was able to record lead guitar during some down time while on tour with Smashing Pumpkins. His guitar is laser focused over a brooding bass line and sweet then scalding vocals, as Christina sings of the anger that comes with a dwindling romance. “While chatting after a Smashing Pumpkins concert one night, we made a joke about Jeff playing lead guitar on the next album,” says the band. “A few years later when Sugarcoat was being recorded we decided to see if Jeff would be interested in making the suggestion a reality. He enthusiastically accepted and later sent over a guitar track that flowed perfectly with ‘Seafoam.’”

Watch Blushing’s Video for “Seafoam”

Sugarcoat is the follow-up to two EPs, 2017’s Tether and 2018’s Weak, their self-titled debut, and 2022’s Possessions. They didn’t want to create an album where each song was made to fit into the same mold. Instead, they decided to run with each idea no matter which direction it was facing, resulting in an album that is somewhat of a sampler of the group’s collective influences. While there are certainly tracks immediately recognizable as “Blushing” songs, this album is where the band get to explore their love for expanding genres, from post-punk, psych-gaze, grunge-pop, indie-pop, slowcore, and beyond. Lyrically the album asks many questions, reaching out for someone to provide answers or for the answers to come from within. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world as well as personally. Getting older, questioning past decisions, and the constant unknown of the future.

On Sugarcoat, Blushing’s dynamism is on full display, flitting effortlessly from spacey psychedelia to twee pop jangle with finesse and panache. Having enlisted Elliot Frazier (Ringo Deathstarr) and Mark Gardener (Ride) for engineering, mixing, and mastering duties, Sugarcoat is a dense, reverb-laden exploration of alt-rock’s 40 year history that conjures up concord from chaos.

This summer, they’ll support Slater and Airiel across North America, along with headline dates in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and more. Following, they’ll head over to the UK to play shows with Ringo Deathstarr. All dates can be found below.

Watch Blushing’s Video for “Tamagotchi”

Pre-order Sugarcoat

Blushing Tour Dates (new dates in bold)
Thu. May 2 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas (album release show)
Wed. May 15 – San Antonio, TX @ Vibes Underground *
Thu. May 16 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada *
Sat. May 18 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall *
Sun. May 19 – McAllen, TX @ The Gremlin *
Fri. June 14 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Resonant Head
Sat. June 15 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge
Sun. June 16 – Nashville, TN @ 5 spot
Tue. June 18 – Washington, DC @ Pie Shop %
Wed. June 19 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s %
Thu. June 20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right %
Fri. June 21 – Boston, MA @ Deep Cuts %
Sat. June 22 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground %
Sun. June 23 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz %
Mon. June 24 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison %
Wed. June 26 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls Funhouse %
Thu. June 27 – Detroit, MI @ Small’s %
Fri. June 28 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland
Sat. June 29 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas
Mon. July 1 – Denver, CO @ Skylark Lounge
Wed. July 3 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Thu. July 4 – Portland, OR @ The Six
Fri. July 5 – San Francisco, CA @ Kilowatt
Sat. July 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge
Sun. July 7 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
Mon. July 8 – El Paso, TX @ Rosewood
Sun. Sept. 1 – Cambridge, UK @ Portland Arms ^
Mon. Sept. 2 – Birmingham, UK @ Academy 3 ^
Tue. Sept. 3 – Leeds, UK @ Old Woollen ^
Wed. Sept. 4 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo ^
Thu. Sept. 5 – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute ^
Fri. Sept. 6 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Islington ^
Sat. Sept. 7 – Brighton, UK @ Dust ^

* = w/ Slater
%= w/ Airiel
^= w/ Ringo Deathstarr

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]